Search results

The purpose of this review is to narrate the microbiological quality of variety of street foods which are largely consumed by the Bangladeshi people of all ages. However, these foods are prone to microbial contamination. Most of the vendors lack the awareness on hygiene during preparing, processing or handling the foods. The insufficiency in regular microbiological analysis further casts the possibility of disease onset. The need of microbial analyses of these foods also remains unclear to the consumers, which, in turn, results in microbial infections and intoxications remaining unnoticed.

The present review focused on the microbiological quality of the street foods projected from the locally conducted researches on street foods, and pondered on the possible management from a microbiological perspective for ensuring consumer safety.

This paper provides comprehensive information on the microbiological quality of street foods, requirement of maintenance of hygiene by the vendors and consumers and the necessity of adopting proper management during food preparation.

Demonstration of microbial prevalence in the street foods may bring imperative information on food safety and security. The conclusive message of this review is about the general consciousness on the microbiological aspects of street food contamination.

With a previous throughput of sea fish contamination with microorganisms, the present study extended the array of such spoilage over four other fish samples including Pseudapocryptes elongates, Scomberomorus cavalla, Xenentodon cancila and Otolithoides pama, evaluated the reductive impact of irradiation, and further validated the irradiation methodology in controlling the microbial quality of the sea fish samples. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Twelve samples of each sea fish were collected from super shops in Dhaka city and a portion of each sample was subjected to γ-irradiation at a dose of 3 kilo gray (kGy). Then, both non-irradiated and irradiated samples were tested for the presence of pathogenic bacteria though culture on different specific media followed by biochemical identification. Drug resistance among the pathogens was also investigated.

Most of the non-irradiated samples were observed to harbor huge bacteria and fungi (1.3×102-1.5×107 cfu/g or cfu/ml) including the fecal coliforms ranging up to 105 cfu/g or cfu/ml, leading to an elevated threat to public health. Besides, the isolates were found to be resistant against single or multiple antibiotics, which further brought treatment complications during the possible disease outbreaks. However, the pathogenic load was significantly reduced after applying 3 kGy dose of γ-irradiation on the samples in consistent to the previous work using different fish samples.

A similar type of work has already been published by the group using different samples this year in the Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Sciences, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 2420-2430. However, even being an increment of the previous work, the present work deals with extended array of sea fish samples with an objective of controlling food safety.

The present work further confirms and assists the knowledge of food protection and the identification of spoiling bacteria and fungi by applying replicable methods projects of the novelty and practical outcome of the work.

The reduction of pathogenic load revealed the efficacy of γ-irradiation as a mean of preserving fish quality. Besides, the study quantified the contaminating microorganisms as well as identified the drug-resistant bacteria among sea fish samples. Traditional but standard cultural and biochemical tests, demonstration of drug resistance among the isolated microorganisms from fish samples and finally the microbial elimination by irradiation might contribute to the existing knowledge on major sea fish.

The purpose of the paper is to emphasize on contamination sources of freshly cultivated vegetables commonly consumed by the Bangladeshi people. Several local studies have been conducted to detect the microbial contamination within fresh vegetables, plantation lands and the irrigation waters separately; however, the correlation of microbial contamination between the fresh produces and the surrounding environment has not been clarified.

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo), radish (Raphanus sativus) and eggplant (Solanum melongena); their plantations soils and the fertilizers applied across the agricultural lands; and, finally, the irrigation waters used were analyzed from nine districts of Bangladesh using conventional microbiological and biochemical methods.

Almost all vegetable samples studied were found to be immensely contaminated with bacteria and fungi. Among the pathogens, Klebsiella spp., Staphylococcus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. were found to be dominant. Besides, massive microbial growth was also observed in the plantation soils and fertilizers, including Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp., Bacillus spp., Listeria spp., Escherichia coli and Vibrio spp. Existence of the fecal coliforms, E. coli, Klebsiella spp., Salmonella spp. and Listeria spp., was noticed in the irrigation waters.

Although the present study revealed the combined results connecting the vegetable contamination aspect with the knowledge on microbiology ultimately in the food chain, implementation of molecular studies detecting the virulence genes both in the fresh produces and the plantation soils, fertilizers and the irrigation waters would further clarify the microbial dissemination mechanism.

Earlier studies demonstrated the ability of water bodies to disseminate numerous microorganisms into the plantation soils, and to some extent unraveled the ability of organic fertilizers to propagate pathogenic bacteria into the vegetation objects. These microorganisms may pose as a threat to vegetables, particularly by limiting crop production as well as the shelf life of the fresh produces.

The scenario of microbial divergence not only in the vegetables but also within the surroundings is gradually being heightened in Bangladesh principally due to the malpractice of sanitation, dumping the agricultural lands with feces, improperly controlled septic systems, waste water runoff across the agricultural lands, etc. Therefore, the preliminary and replicable experimental approach described in the current study would be feasible for all other developing countries to maintain the public health safety.

Growth and proliferation of microorganisms both in the vegetable samples and the environmental samples nearly to a similar extent indeed projected for the first time in Bangladesh, the agricultural perspective of the contamination sources of vegetables. Such knowledge would aid in the existing knowledge on the hygienic processing during crop production and harvesting for the sake of better consumer safety management.

The purpose of this paper is to portray a general situation on the microbiological spoilage aspects of agriculture and focus on the necessary management schemes of microbiological contamination aiming to deliver information on the public health safety.

A substantial number of local studies on nutritional policies have been performed earlier; however, the microbiological quality control of the agricultural products is still scarce. This review analyzes the microbiological aspects of local agricultural products together with the study findings relevant to food safety as published both globally and locally.

Ongoing awareness on the microbiological quality in accordance to the recommended microbiological limit of different fresh produces would deliver a practical outcome in the safe crop management. Information on microorganisms contaminating agricultural products is expected to ensure public health safety especially within the developing countries along with Bangladesh.

The improvements in agriculture status in Bangladesh, particularly in microbiological quality perspective, have been relatively slow, principally due to lack of knowledge on the health risks within the mass population caused by microorganisms harbored through the agricultural products. The novelty of the current review, thus, underlies the necessity of microbiological quality management of the agricultural products, projection on the specific microorganisms contaminating the agricultural products and possible disease outbreaks caused by the consumption of these contaminated products.

Current study was carried to detect the presence of pathogenic bacteria including the drug-resistant ones from milk and milk products. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Twenty-six raw milk samples from ten different areas, 28 pasteurized milk samples from 12 different companies and 26 yogurt samples from ten different sources in Dhaka city were microbiologically analyzed through cultural and biochemical identification of the isolates. Drug resistance trait was also determined by the Kirby-Bauer method on Muller-Hinton agar.

Out of 80 samples studied, 74 were found to harbor pathogens within a range of 102-104 cfu/ml, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Vibrio spp. The study of antibiogram revealed that most of the isolates were resistant against most of the commonly used antibiotics.

Employment of only cultural/ biochemical tests excluding the molecular detection of virulence and/or antibiotic resistance genes might stand as a shortfall of the study. Nevertheless, such basic approach of microbiology can make this type of study replicable in the resource poor settings in the other developing countries.

Routine detection of drug-resistant bacteria can further unveil the complications in chemotherapy during the endemic food borne diseases.

The study outcome/knowledge would aid to a better public health management especially in the developing countries.

The presence of drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria in most of the tested milk samples poses a great public health threat, especially to the children. Therefore, the study revealed the necessity of maintaining proper hygienic practice and care in handling and processing of milk and milk products.

The present study investigates the moderating role of customer trust in customer relationship management (CRM) components and customer loyalty relationships in the context of the baking sector in Bangladesh.

Data were collected through a survey using a structured questionnaire from 350 customers of commercial banks in Bangladesh.

The key finding is that all CRM components (customer orientation, customer advocacy and customer knowledge) except customer engagement have positive impact on customer loyalty. Moreover, customer trust only moderates the relationship between customer knowledge and customer loyalty, whereas other CRM components and customer loyalty do not moderate by trust.

The findings of the study add to the substantial pool of knowledge on CRM components, customer trust and customer loyalty literature. More specifically, the moderating role of customer trust between customer knowledge and customer loyalty is the novel contribution of this research which will enrich the existing CRM literature particularly in the banking sector of Bangladesh.

In this study, the relationship between female labour force participation rate and economic growth is investigated in middle-income countries. The study covers the period of 2001–2016 by employing a dynamic panel approach. Pooled Ordinary Least Square and Fixed Effects model estimations are calculated as a decision criterion to select proper GMM Method. The outcomes indicate that the proper estimation technique, which is a System-GMM model, evidences the U Feminisation Theory for the middle-income countries while controlling all other factors.

The novelty of this study is that the research not only employs both difference and system generalised method of moments (GMM) estimators but also includes main explanatory variables such as education, fertility, and total labour force rate. The study provides an opportunity to review the U-shape nexus between the female labour force and economic growth while controlling education, fertility and total labour participation rate.

The estimation implies that middle-income countries support a U-shaped relationship. The fertility rate does not impact on the female labour force, and education and total labour force level have a positive influence on women's participation in the labour market.

This study used data that include the period of 2001–2016 for middle-income countries. So, further studies can use different periods of data or different countries.

The authors emphasise the importance of economic growth for female labour force for middle-income countries. Thus, a country intending to increase female labour force should also focus on its economic growth. As the study points out, middle-income countries staying under the minimum threshold, $4698.15 (per capita), should priorities their economic improvement policies to reach their female labour force participation goal. Those countries also should be prepared for a female labour force participation declining phase until they reach the turning point income level.

Furthermore, education is one of the critical determinants that have an impact on FLFPR. The equal opportunity for both genders to engage in education should be considered as a policy. If females do not have an equal chance to enrolment in education, it may influence the policy of increasing female labour force adversely. Fertility rate appears no more statistically significant in our study. Moreover, today, there are some countries they practise equality between genders by providing equally extended parental leave, which may be a promising policy for gender equality in the labour force and may worth a try.

Some previous studies may suffer model mistakes due to lack of consideration the endogeneity problem and bias issue of the results as suggested by Tam (2011). Moreover, previous studies tend to choose either studying U-feminisation as excluding other variables or studying determinants of female labour force participation rate as excluding U-feminisation theory. There is not any panel data study acknowledging both concepts by using recent data to the best knowledge of the authors. Thus, the novelty of this study is that the research not only employs both difference and system generalised method of moments (GMM) estimators but also includes main explanatory variables such as education, fertility, and total labour force rate. The study provides an opportunity to review the U-shape nexus between the female labour force and economic growth while controlling education, fertility and total labour participation rate.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) components on competitive advantage through customer loyalty in the banking sector of Bangladesh.

A structured questionnaire was used for the data collection process. In all, 326 respondents were participated in the survey and selected conveniently from the commercial banks of Bangladesh. Data were analyzed by using Smart-PLS software.

The outcomes of this study indicate that customer orientation and technology capability have a positive impact on competitive advantage, while customer knowledge does not. Besides, customer loyalty significantly mediates the relationship between customer orientation and technology capability with competitive advantage, while this mediation effect appears insignificant between customer knowledge and competitive advantage.

This study's findings can help Bangladeshi bank managers communicate with new customers about their promotional activities while keeping old customers informed about new CRM initiatives.

This study adds to the existing pool of knowledge on CRM components, customer loyalty and competitive advantage literature. Particularly, the mediating role of customer loyalty between the CRM components (customer orientation and technology capability) and competitive advantage is the unique contribution of this research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the Big Five Model (BFM), the urge to purchase (UP) and urgency (UR) on impulse purchase (IP) in Facebook commerce (F-commerce), with the F-commerce purchase as control variable. It also investigates the influence of BFM and UR on UP and the effects of BFM on UR.

The survey instrument was rigorously validated via content validity index by expert panel, Q-sort procedure for construct validity by practitioners in pre-test, followed by evaluation of construct reliability in the pilot test. Data gathered from 808 usable questionnaires were analyzed using SmartPLS 3.

The study showed that BFM, UP, UR and F-commerce purchase are significant predictors of the F-commerce IP. UP is influenced by BFM and UR. BFM has a significant positive relationship with UR. F-commerce experience has insignificant moderating effect.

This study provides some useful practical implications for the F-commerce administrators, advertisers, dealers and promoters.

Existing studies focus on the antecedents of IP in conventional stores and online businesses; however, IP in F-commerce has been largely overlooked. The study investigates the impacts of personality traits on IP and its effects on UR and UP. The mediating effects of UR and UP were also examined. The study is able to predict 64.4, 68.0 and 49.0 percent variance in IP, UP and UR, respectively.

The main purpose of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) sustainability case is to allow students to explore how nonfinancial information reported in sustainability plays a vital role in maintaining a trade-off between current economic pressure and future environmental needs.

This is an exploratory study in nature using a qualitative case study approach. The case requires an examination of DEWA's sustainability reporting (SR) in the context of Global Reporting Initiatives (GRIs). This case is designed to assist students in gauging DEWA's sustainability and explore how the company evaluates the materiality of sustainability issues.

With stakeholders' and investors' increased interest in sustainability, the authors argue that accounting programs should incorporate this topic into their curricula. The case enables students to focus on sustainability-related initiatives with DEWA that are aligned with GRI initiatives. The case might be instructive for both undergraduate and postgraduate students studying environmental and management accounting.

This case study is the first of its kind in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region to comprehensively analyze DEWA's sustainability practices concerning GRI-based SR. This study widens the understanding of DEWA's implementation of GRI standards in the preparation of its sustainability reports.